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Des Moines, Waukee districts hand out computers; students resume schooling at home

On any other day in April, they’d be filled with students, but this time they carried personal Wi-Fi hotspots to students who need internet access to receive their online instruction.

Further west, students would usually start arriving at Waukee High School by 7:15, many stopping in the hallway to chat with Principal Cary Justmann.

But yesterday, the hallways were empty. Justmann’s students began weeks of online learning as Iowa schools are currently closed through the end of the month.

Already, Justmann said, he misses his morning conversations.

“By far the best part of my job is interacting with the kids, and that time before we start at 8:10 a.m. is when you get to greet kids after a weekend, you get to build some of those connections, you get to help them with whatever they may need,” he said.

“Clearly, today was different.”

It’s not exactly “back” to school after an extended spring break caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Monday was the first day of “distance learning” for Des Moines seniors and Waukee High School students. Most of the learning, however, will resume later on in the week. Monday was more about getting students internet access and figuring out where they stand academically before the end of the school year.

With the COVID-19 “peak” set to hit Iowa later this month, DMPS announced last week that students would attend classes virtually for the remainder of the school year. Its seniors started back Monday, but underclassmen will start April 20 while children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade go back to class on April 27.

The school district also canceled the spring sports season, proms and any concerts, musicals or plays. Officials are considering “alternatives” for commencement ceremonies, rather than packing thousands of people into auditoriums.

Unlike their high school counterparts, Waukee elementary and middle school students are following a voluntary continuous learning model, in which their work won't be graded and they won't have to make up lost time due to the pandemic.

Waukee High School hasn't yet canceled its prom or commencement, or even the spring musical. Justmann said that until they are told otherwise, those milestones are giving students something to look forward to when things return to normalcy.

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Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

Des Moines Public School employee Daniel Brown sprays down a Men's bathroom with sanitizer at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. The district is going through all of it's schools and cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Brian Powers/The Register

DMPS IT Director Dan Warren, right and Technology Services Manager Dan Sloan, left, clean and sanitize computers at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. Warren said the district has about 35,000 computers that will all be sanitized before students come back. Brian Powers/The Register

DMPS IT Director Dan Warren, right and Technology Services Manager Dan Sloan, left, clean and sanitize computers at Central campus on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Des Moines. Warren said the district has about 35,000 computers that will all be sanitized before students come back. Brian Powers/The Register

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Districts get devices to students

At the top of Des Moines school officials' to-do list Monday was getting students internet access and laptops. The buses delivered about 300 hot spots. The demand across the district is high, DMPS director of high schools Mike Vukovich said. Between 3,500 and 4,000 students have requested internet access, devices or both, according to a district survey.

“Our whole premise is to not widen the gap that already exists,” Vukovich said, referring to the divide between students who have access to learning technology and those who don’t.

He added that the district is hoping to get a more permanent fix for students without internet access because it might not have enough hotspots to deliver to all students. Students who’ve yet to receive a laptop or internet access should call their high school.

Des Moines seniors with internet access on Monday took a survey on their academic progress. Vukovich said they were asked how to move forward in their classes: taking a class pass/fail, accepting their current grade as their final grade or working to improve their grade.

The different options allow flexibility if a student needs to focus on particular classes to meet graduation or college requirements, allowing them to drop what they don’t need, Vukovich said. It can also allow students extra time to prepare for the ACT or SAT.

“There’s a whole lot of choices seniors have to make for each class,” said Vukovich.

Waukee set up nine distribution points on Monday where high school students could pick up a computer if they don't have access to one at home, Justmann said. Teachers are considering those variables in students' personal lives when making assignments, he said.

“Our teachers are going to try to facilitate learning and try to push kids into high expectations while at the same time knowing this is such a weird time, and we don’t know everyone’s circumstances as far as what their home is like, and what their device access is like,” he said.

Students describe upended senior year

Waukee High School’s student body president Will Keck, 18, said the last few weeks have upended his schedule in every way.

Without early morning student council meetings and classes, he can snooze his alarm for a couple more hours of sleep. He's used to weekly show choir practices that can last as late at 10 p.m. on Mondays, and after-school cross country and track practice.

"During school, it’s easy to get in a schedule and we know when we’re supposed to wake up, be in class, and social interaction helps wake us up and be ready for the day," Keck said. "For me, it’s been super easy to sleep in, snooze the alarm, and you end up just rolling out of bed at 10."

Will Keck, 18, is a senior and the student body president of Waukee High School.(Photo: Special to the Register)

Keck said upcoming Advanced Placement tests, and approaching college classes, are helping him remain motivated in uncertain times. Looking back exactly one month earlier, he said, "it's difficult to think that our last day at school could have been March 13."

One teacher has set up a Microsoft Teams meeting to go over the AP materials.

“It’s really been a bunch of trying to get everyone on the same page,” he said.

He planned to take his class survey Monday evening and said he’d likely decide to keep the grades he currently has in his seven classes. He’ll spend the next few weeks preparing for his five AP tests, which he would’ve been doing regardless of the pandemic — just not at home.

The Roosevelt student council has tried to keep its classmates engaged on social media, promoting the surveys the district sends out, Zafar said. Waukee is using a similar approach, posting funny and heartfelt videos by counselors and teachers to their social media pages.

Zafar said it’s been “eye-opening” to see how many students needed either internet access or a laptop to continue their schoolwork.

“You realize there are a lot of students that are at a significant disadvantage,” he said.

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Fez Zafar is a community leader and mobilizer; heÕs organized multiple youth engagement events through his nonporift, Smiles and Smarts, and heÕs looking to organize youth-oriented political forums in 2019 for recently elected candidates and during the 2019 Democratic Caucus. Shown here during a class at Central Academy Dec. 14, 2018, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo: Rodney White/The Register)

Educators leaning on each other

For Des Moines students enrolled in dual-credit courses through a community college, classes will continue online, said Tascha Brown, director of DMPS’s Central Campus.

Central Campus serves as a hub for mostly upperclassmen who take career-readiness classes not offered at the traditional high schools: welding, carpentry, marine biology and more. Many of the classes offer community-college credit, mostly through Des Moines Area Community College.

Some of those hands-on classes, like welding, don’t easily translate to online learning.

“We really have to start getting creative with 'What does that look like?' ” Brown said, adding that some hands-on classes might become more theoretical online.

However, animal science students are still permitted to check on the animals they’re raising, and the students in the Ruan apprenticeship program have continued their work at home, she said.

So far, Brown said the students who’ve filled out their surveys have said they want to continue with their classes. It’s free college credit, after all.

Both the “amazing” teachers and pupils are checking in on each other, Brown said, one of the few bright spots in their new education reality.

“Overall, we’ve really come together as a district, as a team, as a staff,” she said.

Justmann, the Waukee principal, said his optimistic nature is leading him to think about what, if any, good will come for students and educators as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I'm kind of curious to see if there are positives that come out of this," he said. "What's been thrown in our faces is all the negatives, but maybe we become better at X, Y and Z because of all this. I just don't know what that is yet."

Austin Cannon covers the city of Des Moines for the Register. Reach him at awcannon@registermedia.com or 515-284-8398. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.